1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a gaming machine which carries out a game using a token such as a coin, and a game control method according to the gaming machine.
2. Related Art
A slot machine, in which reels, on a peripheral surface of each of which is depicted a symbol column with a plurality of symbols, are rotated and then stopped, and a game result is determined according to a combination of symbols displayed', that is, a slot machine equipped with mechanical reels is divided roughly into a so-called pachi-slot machine and a so-called casino machine. The pachi-slot machine and the casino machine differ in whether or not an operation of stopping the rotation of the reels is needed. That is, the pachi-slot machine including a number of stop buttons equal to that of the reels, the rotation of the reels stops in accordance with a player's depression operation of the stop buttons. Meanwhile, the casino machine, including no stop button, is configured in such a way that each reel stops automatically in a prescribed order.
To date, the pachi-slot machine and the casino machine each being provided with a liquid crystal display device or the like, in accordance with the rotation, stopping or the like of the reels, a variety of effects due to an image is carried out on the liquid crystal display device or the like.
In recent years, in the pachi-slot machine, the fact has prevailed that, a transparent liquid crystal panel being installed in front of the reels, an image is displayed in front of the reels. As this kind of pachi-slot machine, for example, a pachi-slot machine exists in which, in a case in which each reel is stop displayed in a transparent display area of the transparent liquid crystal panel, by determining a display priority among a plurality of image elements, such as spotlights (a partial transmissive condition) or rocks, based on a stop display mode of the reels, it is possible to carry out an effect display in multifarious ways (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-52449).
In the pachi-slot machine described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-52449, in a case in which an effect carried out in a condition in which one symbol is missing from a prescribed combination (a so-called lizhi effect) is carried out, for example, when a bonus symbol “red 7” is stop displayed in each of two of three reels, and a lizhi occurs, the display priority of the spotlights being made higher than that of the image representing the rocks, the lizhi effect by the reels is preferentially carried out.